Gilgit:
A lawyer’s sit-in outside Gilgit-Baltist Chief Minister’s Secretariat entered its sixth day on Saturday as the barracks demanded immediate appointments of judges to the region’s top and lower courts.
The protest, speared by the GB Bar Council, comes in the middle of a growing backlog over thousands of cases and long -term imprisonment of prisoners during review. Lawyers say that legal paralysis is lasting for over five years and denies citizens their basic right of justice.
In the heart of the crisis, the top appeal in GB is the region’s highest legal forum, which is intended to have three judges, but has worked with only one for almost half a decade. “This is nothing less than a collapse of the justice system,” said lawyer Zafar Iqbal, president of GB Bar Council while talking to journalists in the protest camp.
The anger of the lawyers elaborated after the reports emerged that the government was considering appointing a retired judge to the vacancy. The Council of Barrow rejected the proposal and insisted that agreements should be made from the lawyer’s brotherhood.
However, main minister Haji Gulbar Khan defended his government and said that directives had already been issued to accept certain demands. He accused the previous government of the prolonged delay in judicial appointments.
Adding weight to the protest visited former chief minister Hafeezur Rehman also the camp and threw both past and current governments. “In civilized nations, judges even remain available on weekends just to ensure justice,” he said. “Here are years without judges. Those who wait in prisons of justice – what will they do?”
The lawyers, supported by the Supreme Court Bar Association for GB, have been boycotting litigation for months. Their charter of requirements includes enforcement of the Law Protection Act, the establishment of family and consumer courts and separation of legal magistrates from civilian roles. They also accuse the government of backtracking on a 2011 promise of awarding land to lawyers.
Civil society groups have thrown their support behind the protest and warned that the vacuum in the judiciary risks elaborating on public disillusionment with the system.
The Council has promised to continue its sit-in until all requirements are met.
